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Reasons to Live
by Amy Hempel
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper Perennial (1995-08-30)
ISBN: 0060976721
EAN: 9780060976729
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 144 pages
Release Date: 1995-07-20
SKU: 080703002
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: This First Printing copy is in very good condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. No Dust Jacket. Soft Cover has light/minimum, shelf/edge wear. Great reading copy, worth having at an affordable price. (L11-8)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Hempel's now-classic collection of short fiction is peopled by complex characters who have discovered that their safety nets are not dependable and who must now learn to balance on the threads of wit, irony, and spirit.
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Customer Reviews
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Reasons to read
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-11-14
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
There are many reasons to read Amy Hempel's superb debut, "Reasons to Live". Here you have five of them:
1- Less Is More: She writes like nobody with fewer words than anyone. I used to think that Raymond Carver was minimalist (although he didn't like this label). Silly me. Hempel is able to use fewer words than him. Her style is very economic displaying only the very necessary.
2 - "In The Cemetery Where Al Jonson Is Buried": One of the best short stories written by any writer anywhere. Reportedly her first text, Hempel has debuted with assurance and grace. A whole live passes in front of our eyes in less than 20 pages.
3 - People: Hempel writes about human beings, and not big Historical Facts. Thank God. Many people may look down on writers like her - also Carver, Alice Munro etc - because the readers have the stupid feeling of not being learning anything. In the end of one of her stories (any of them) we can have the feeling of knowing the world a little better. And this is priceless.
4 - Images: Imagine a plastic Jesus figure that can breath. Now imagine the amazement of a character looking at it and asking for a miracle. Now imagine you, as a reader, being swallowed by this situation. Got the picture?
5 - Reasons to Live: This collection is populated by people trying to find a better reason to stay alive. There are many, they just have to find them. Hempel's way of approaching this people is delicate and complex. We couldn't ask for more.
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Thank you Chuck
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-03
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book because it was recommended by Chuck Palahniuk on his website. Reading it you can definitely see that it influenced him in his writings. The stories are short, but each one is great in there own way. Check it out.
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i strike out again!
Rating  (1)
Date: 2007-02-03
5 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
boy, am i in the middle of a reading slump. a whole chain of dull books have fallen into my hands lately, and this is one of them. I recently got a book entitled: "1001 books you must read before you die," and this was one of the 1001 books listed. it is the 4th book i have read based on the recommendations of "1001 books..." and i am now afraid to move on to a 5th suggestion. this little book of stories was about as far from a "must read" book as i can imagine. cookie-cutter writers workshop pieces that are pretentious and absolutely unmemorable. the only thing i liked about this book was that it was short.
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Queen of the short story
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-12-23
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Thank goodness for Amy Hempel, egging on those of us who write short stories by constantly keeping her breathtaking prose to under fifty pages.
I had a writing teacher who warned us against trying to write after reading Amy, because we would feel compelled to try to emulate her. Of course this is almost always true with influence, but Amy Hempel's writing is like a drug. Reading her words makes the idea of writing newly exciting. It's a challenge to keep up with her, to capture the world in such perfectly crafted, concise sentences, to exercise such restraint and hint at such powerful emotions underneath.
I could have written this for any of Amy's work, especially her recently published collected works, but I chose "Reasons to Live" because of "The Man in Bogota" and "Celia is Back," my two personal favorites.
If you're a writer, read on with caution; if not, I promise Amy will make you want to start.
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Reasons to weep
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-03
8 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
I first found Amy Hempel in college. A perceptive, smart instructor assigned me "The Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried." It was a shock to the system. For the first time in years words on a page made me weep. I was instantly hooked on Amy Hempel.
This is, I believe, her greatest collection. From first page to last it is an extraordinary look into the human condition. The two real standouts are the aforemention "Al Jolson" and a story called "Nashville Gone to Ashes."
Nashville is about the recent widdow of a veterinarian. Saying it that way seems to short it a bit. Like all of Ms Hempel's stories, Nashville is about human suffering, courage, love, despair and being human.
Read these stories and you will weep.
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